


my world has gone dark without your light

by myndopeus



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: A Lot of Death, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Suicide Attempt, Time Loop, and the rangers as a family, but mostly just a general fic about trini, may be some light trimberly, or rather the rangers when they're not a family, sort of? kind of groundhog day but not really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 21:44:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12241185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myndopeus/pseuds/myndopeus
Summary: The date on the calendar is old. Almost months old. As she gapes at it, it suddenly clicks why her parents were so confused when she said she had friends, why the rangers weren’t in her phone, why everything had been feeling wrong from the moment she woke up.“We haven’t even met yet…”(Trini is sent into a time loop where she must ensure that all of her friends become the Power Rangers. Failure is not an option; if she doesn't succeed, then she'll just have to try again... and again... and again... and again...)





	my world has gone dark without your light

**Author's Note:**

> in true myndopeus fashion, i consider the first chapter as more of a prologue than anything else, especially since it's so short. this is a new fic idea i had, randomly inspired by when i was listening to Requiem from Dear Evan Hansen and i thought "what if the rangers had never met..."  
> i'm going to be very busy with school, so don't expect consistent updates (not going to oversell myself this time).

* * *

_It’s pitch black. The kind of darkness that’s so deep and unending that it feels like it’s alive. Like it’s moving. The feeling of immense pressure, tension, and impending implosion, on the verge of extinguishing-_

_Light._

_The wall flickers, barely illuminated to conserve power. The rest of the ship remains completely dark, except for two tiny pinpoints of light down the hallway through the open hatch. There’s the rusted clanking of metal as they slowly approach._

_“…Master Zordon?”_

_Wires spark as they drag across the floor of the ship. Alpha-5 is practically on the verge of falling apart, his systems stuttering as he inches towards the large wall. Painstakingly, he hauls himself across the Grid Room until he’s close enough to lay a hand on the wall._

_There’s a slight static crackling, and then silence. He sighs, defeated. Then, a deep hum slowly sounds, rising in volume. There’s a surge of power, the lights flicker, and the tiles of the wall begin to ripple. A broken voice echoes through the empty room._

_“Alph-… -appened? Whe-… -angers must regrou-… We need to help them defeat-“_

_“Zordon, save your energy. We might need it.” One of Alpha’s eyes flickers before going dark._

_“…Where are they?” The tiles no longer move, but the voice is clearer, more coherent. “What happened to them? Where is Jason?”_

_Alpha sighs, lowering himself to the floor creakily. “This new threat… wherever they came from, they had more advanced technology than we anticipated. If the ship had been up and running, we could have employed counter-measures.”_

_“What did they do? The readings of the ship, they don’t make sense. Unless…”_

_“I didn’t have time to calibrate the sensors, so I don’t know how they did it, but they somehow altered the temporal ordering, shifting the sequencing of the relative prime timeline. How they managed that without widespread temporal-spatial destruction, I’m not sure. No one has ever managed something of that magnitude before.”_

_Zordon is silent in contemplation. “We never managed it before, but that was a very long time ago, Alpha. But if what you say is true, then… have they rid this world of the power rangers? Entirely?”_

_“They wouldn’t risk something of that magnitude. My guess is, they simply altered it so that this team of power rangers does not exist, or at the very least, was never formed.”_

_“And how are we still alive?”_

_“In the ranger’s recent battles, we studied some of the enemy’s tactics and technology. I devised a protective displacement field, with the help of Ma-… Master Billy.” Alpha bows his head in respect._

_“Hmm… Alpha.” Zordon’s tone is sharp, as commanding as it was when he was alive, and Alpha immediately straightens out of reflex._

_“Yes, Zordon?”_

_“You said that you studied some of the enemy’s temporal technology. Using your notes and the ship’s databases, could you find a way to reconnect our timeline fragment with another, to recreate the prime timeline?”_

_Alpha hauls himself to his feet, tottering towards the morphing grid. “It… it may be possible, but with the equipment on this ship, we would likely use all of our power. And there’s no guarantee that we could survive the sequencing shift. We wouldn’t be able to sufficiently ensure the continuity.”_

_“We don’t have to be the ones to do that.”_

_A pause._

_“Do you mean to use one of the rangers?”_

_Zordon’s voice is grave. “Yes. No need to warn me of the dangers, Alpha. I understand fully what this would mean.”_

_“But why? How could you subject them to that?!” Alpha demands defiantly._

_“We don’t have a choice!” The wall tiles surge briefly. “It’s a sacrifice that must be made, for the sake of the universe!” Alpha shrinks away._

_The tiles recede, the wall becoming a blank slate again. “Besides, if we use the power of the coins, we may be able to exploit the energy of the morphing grid. It would increase our chances of success.”_

_Both of them fall into a grim silence. Alpha remains still, frozen, until finally, he nods minutely._

_Zordon gives a resigned sigh. “Good. Now, let us begin…”_

* * *

She shoots upright with a burning gasp, flailing and clawing at her throat and face. The memory of metal pressing down, her mask nearly being crushed into her face, fills her with sudden claustrophobia, and she’s inexplicably struggling to breathe.

Another thrill of panic overtakes her as she suddenly finds herself tumbling over the edge of something. She’s free falling for the longest second before she collides with a hard wood surface. She’s dazed, her eyes flickering around wildly, taking in her surroundings. After a few moments, familiarity starts to sink in as she recognizes the desk, the papers pinned to the wall, the angle of the sun shining through the window.

The moment is shattered by a loud knock on the door, and she flinches. Before she can get up, the door opens and a head pokes through.

Her dad almost misses her lying on the floor, but when he sees her, he just shakes his head. “I’m going to assume this means you’re not ready for school yet.”

She blinks groggily. “Wha-… school? But- but I was just…” she trails off, confused.

Her father sighs. “You were probably just dreaming again. I thought we moved past all those nightmares and things. Ah well, just make sure you’re not late.” He’s gone and the door is shut before she can say anything.

She stands on shaky legs, trying to reconcile what she sees with the memories that are so fresh in her head. She remembers fighting with her friends, with the other rangers, against some other threat to the Zeo crystal. Despite being almost massively underprepared, they had almost managed to defeat their foe before there had been a massive burst of energy, blinding light, and the painful feeling as though she was being put through a meat grinder, a paper shredder, and a straw all at once.

And yet, her room still feels as real as ever. She feels the same uneasy peace that she always feels when she’s at home, and contrary to what her mind tells her, her body shows no injury or signs of having been in a recent battle. Through sheer force of routine, she manages to pull on a set of decent clothes and grab her backpack.

She almost never eats breakfast with her family, so they barely look up as she heads straight for the door. As she’s tugging her shoes on, her mother calls from the dining room. “What time are you going to be home?”

“Late, I’m seeing my friends again.” She responds with the same answer she always gives, regardless of whether they have ranger training or not. She’s eager to get away, and to discuss how she felt with the others. She’s almost out the door when she’s stopped by her father calling her name.

“What?” she calls back a little tiredly.

“Since when do you have friends?”

She stares at his bemused expression for a few moments. “Ha ha, very funny,” she deadpans, and before he can say anything else, she’s out the door.

She tries to shake off the weird feeling as she walks to school. She opens her phone to check the group message, only for her unease to grow when she notices that it’s not in her recent conversations. In fact, none of the other rangers are. They’re not in her contacts either.

She’s starting to really freak out when she accidentally presses the home button. She freezes in the middle of the sidewalk, looking incredulously at the calendar app.

“That’s impossible,” she whispers to herself, but in some horrible, twisted, nightmare-ish way, it all makes sense.

The date on the calendar is old. Almost months old. As she gapes at it, it suddenly clicks why her parents were so confused when she said she had friends, why the rangers weren’t in her phone, why everything had been feeling wrong from the moment she woke up.

“We haven’t even _met_ yet…”

**Author's Note:**

> check out my tumblr myndopeus.tumblr.com for more ranger memes and writing


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